Tapping at the Window

Waiting, tired.

Fell asleep.

Tap, tap, tap.

What is that?

It's a bird,

back window.

Take picture.

Where's my phone?

Find the app.

Just in time.

Flew away.

.....................

Tap, tap, tap.

Sounds familiar...

Tapping at my window,

Isn't there a poem?

Rapping at my window,

That's it.

Wee Willie Winkie

By Mother Goose

Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,

Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown,

Rapping at the window, crying through the lock,

"Are the children all in bed, for now it's eight o'clock?"

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176325

That's horrible. If, when I was putting my little kids to bed at eight o'clock, somebody rapped at the window. The dogs would bark, and startle my kids awake. It would take a long time to settle them back down. I would grab wee Willie by his arm, march him right back home, and fuss at his mother for letting him run around at night, in a nightgown, rapping on people's windows.

I never thought of this poem so literally before being startled awake by the bird. There was no going back to sleep after the bird left. He startled me awake, but I didn't mind. A bird pecking at his reflection in the window is not something I have ever seen before. Thankfully, Wee Willie Winkie is make-believe and does not run around at night startling people awake.

I used to read this poem to my children when they were little because it reiterated to them that eight o'clock is bedtime.